Recently, Hecong Liu, a recent doctoral graduate of the Institute of Turbomachinery at School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has been awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdocs by the Humboldt Foundation in Germany. He will join Professor Christof Schulz's team at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany to research breakdown spectroscopy. Professor Christof Schulz is a winner of the Leibniz Prize, Germany's highest Science and technology award, and the editor-in-chief of Progress in Energy and Combustion Science.

Hecong Liu studied at Shanghai Jiao Tong University since 2012 and got his doctoral degree in 2022. Under the guidance of Professor Weiwei Cai, his research interest focus on optical diagnostics, tomography, and combustion. He systematically researched endoscopic tomography, including model improvement and extension of the application. He developed kHz endoscopic flame emission tomography based on a single camera and applied this technique to electric-field assisted combustion. He also developed background-oriented Schlieren tomography, which can measure flame temperature in three dimensions. All the research is of significance to obtain more accurate data and to better understand combustion.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is founded in 1860 and named after the German natural scientist and sociologist Alexander von Humboldt. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is one of the most prestigious scientific foundations in the world. With the aim of "promoting exchanges between scholars and scientists and developing international scientific cooperation", the Humboldt Foundation provides annual grants to outstanding young scientists and scholars, with honorary titles for life. To date, the Humboldt Foundation has awarded research grants to young scientists in more than 140 countries, and more than 50 Humboldt scholars have won Nobel Prizes.